Golden week

We have almost always spent our golden weeks in Soto Boso, even before we had a house there. Our first golden week, we spent it in Onjuku in a fishing minshuku, except that we weren’t fishing! Then for may be 4 or 5 years we came by scooter, touring from north to south, and also the central part of the peninsula. I very well remember the first time we went to Otaki castle, how when driving between the rice paddies, looking at the beautiful colors of the freshly planted rice, the blue sky, and the dark green of the trees I totally was under the spell of this Japanese countryside. And now it’s been probably 4 or 5 years we’ve been spending the golden week in Ohara with friends visiting us and staying with us. It’s a time to be outdoor and to cook quite a lot then.

It’s the perfect time for starting the day with a great breakfast taken in the garden. I like to have all the best products from the region: eggs, strawberries, honey, jams, cheese, ham… and freshly baked bread.

And similarly, for lunches I like to have a few things that can be eaten with no specific order, that please everyone and that are fresh snd local. And with all the snap peas and potatoes now, a big salad is perfect. I chose it because it can be made a bit ahead and kept at room temperature, allowing to be prepared when it is still quiet in the house, and enjoy time with friends.

Potatoes and snap peas salad

– 2 potatoes per person

– 1/2 new onion per person

– 1 handful of snap peas per person

– olive oil, salt, pepper and eventually mustard

Peel and cut be onions and the potatoes. In a large pan heated add olive oil then the onion, and the potatoes. Half cover with water and cook. Prepare the snap peas, add them 2 minutes before the potatoes are ready or before most of the water is gone. Add olive oil, mustard… and serve

May 5, 2018

Mezzelune

For those who’ve been following us, they know that I love to make fresh pasta, and even more stuffed pasta like ravioli (all my recipes are here!). I’ve been testing many options and yet I was satisfied but never fully satisfied by the result, in particular the pasta itself, but not only, though the taste was always really delicious. So while in Florence and A. too busy with work, I decided it would be a great opportunity for me to learn from a real Italian “Mama” or a real chef. My first idea was to go to Giula’s cooking classes at Juls’ kitchen, but it’s too far away from the city for this time, I’ll go later in the spring… I wanted something that wouldn’t take more than 2h. So when I found the cooking classes at the mercato centrale (again mercato centrale… which in the end I’ve been visiting every day!), and that they just had a vegetarian mezzelune class at the perfect timing for me, I had to go!
And I didn’t regret it, I made some of the best pasta ever I think, because thanks to the chefs I’ve finally learned the tricks that where missing to me:
1. it’s OK to knead a lot the pasta and really use the palm of the hand to squeeze it;
2. let the pasta dough rest before rolling it so that the glutinous structure has time to develop;
3. roll and fold once first before rolling for real;
4. and that’s the most crucial, get the sauce moisten (with some of the boiling water for the pasta) and after boiling the pasta add them to the sauce pan at medium-high heat, shaking regularly, so that they roll over in the sauce and it becomes just creamy, neither to watery nor too dry. Serve and it right away!
So now I feel really equipped to prepare more stuffed pasta!!! And I can’t wait to have my new motor for my pasta machine!!!

And because this something I would have never prepared, but it was really delicious, here is the recipe of the mezzelune I made.

Potato and chestnut mezzelune (for 2, makes 8-10 mezzelune)

For the pasta:

same recipe as usual: 100g of flour, 1 egg, olive oil (or not)

For the filling:

– 2 small potatoes

– 1 handful of boiled chestnuts

– a bit of parsley

– 10g of butter

– 20g of grated parmigiano

For the sauce:

– 5 mushrooms

– 1 little handful of dried porcini

– olive oil

– 15 g of butter

– 4-6 leaves of sage

– 30g of grated parmegiano

Start boiling the whole potatoes with the skin, simply washed and add the chestnut to soften them.
Re-hydrate the porcini.
Prepare the dough for the pasta , wrap it and keep it on the side.
Clean and peel the mushrooms, chop them, chop the sage. Drain the porcini and chop them. In a pan heated, add half of the butter for the sauce, a splash of olive oil, then the mushrooms, the porcini, the sage, cook at high heat until it start to golden, then lower the heat, add some hot water and keep cooking all along, while keeping it moisten.
By now the potatoes should be ready, so peel them and chopped them roughly. Mash them with the chestnut (a blender may be welcome here), add the parsley, the parmigiano and stir well to obtain a creamy-dry paste. Roll the pasta, cut out circles and start filling with the filling. close well.
Boil the pasta for about 4-5 minutes, then drain and add them to the sauce pan directly, add the rest of the butter and shake in the pan at high heat, until the pasta has rolled over in the sauce and the sauce has reduced to a creamy texture (look at the top picture at it looks like!). Serve, top with a bit of parmigiano, and enjoy!

December 21, 2017

Cold soup

How is your summer? In Tokyo these days summer looks like the rainy season… and it’s even not too hot! Which is perfect for this first week back to work, except that I was expecting having dinner on the terrace (maybe for the last season since we might move to a new place without a terrace) with our guests but rain didn’t stop for the last week more than just a few minutes. Anyway, this doesn’t affect much my cooking! And after eating out in so many cafes I really enjoyed having a little soup to start with and a cold one for the summer. So for our guests last night (one allergic to lactose) I prepared a potato-leek soup. You know this all-time classic that is so warming in winter… but in a cold version. The only problem with cold soup os that you need to prepare them at least 6h before eating so that they really are really cold when eating.

Vegan cold leek-potato soup: (4 servings)

– 1 leek

– 2-5 potatoes depending on the size

– olive oil, salt, pepper

Wash and chop the leek. In a pan, heat some olive oil and add the leek. Peel the potatoes and cut them. Add to the pan and cook at medium heat until slightly golden, stir every once in a while. Cover with 1L of water and cook until the potatoes are really soft. Blend to obtain a creamy soup (add first the vegetables and then the water little by little in the blender to be sure to have the right consistency. It must slightly more liquid than desired since the cooling will densify the mixture). Add olive oil, salt, pepper. Cool in the fridge for a few hours. Stir the mix before serving to make it homogeneous. Enjoy!

August 17, 2017

Curry soup

A few weeks ago, one day when the weather was awfully rainy, we went out for lunch in a new place we haven’t tried before: Green +. It’s a small cafe a bit remote with a chef that cooks vegan local food using tones of herbs and mild spices. The lunch menu is rather simple: curry soup, or a choice of 3 little dishes. All served with fresh salad, miso soup, brown rice and homemade pickles. Everything is delicious, but the curry soup was a real discovery. I like tasty soup but not too spicy. With the summer settling in, I thought that I won’t make any curry soup anytime soon, but last Sunday the weather was again very rainy and windy and chilly, and I was also sad and worried because our cat didn’t show up for the whole weekend. A warm spicy tasty vegetables soup was perfect for a warming dinner.

I used vegetables I just bought at the farmers market: a few baby corns, a handful of green beans, three little potatoes. one carrot, and one big ripe tomato. All in a big pot, covered woth water. I then added a tea spoon of curry powder, sprinkled a bit od cardamom, cinnamon and nutmeg, added just a bit of black pepper. Cooked under cover for 30min, and served right away.

June 21, 2017

Colorful salad

Sometimes a very simple meal is welcome, but something different than usual. And for no specific reason I don’t cook potato salad very often, even though it’s super easy and delicious. I don’t mean mayonnaise base potato salad that is very common here in Japan, but rather olive oil base. Something with plenty of fresh vegetables. This time I had red cabbage and celery, so I simple shredded the cabbage, cut the celery, boiled and peeled the potatoes. Added some black sesame, a dressing with olive oil and white miso. And here was my vegan salad. For those who like, you can add pan grilled bonito to it. Super delicious. Have a great week!!!

June 11, 2017

Mum’s artichokes barigoule

Every time I go back to my parents’ place in Aix-en-Provence and the season allows for it, my mother would cook one of my favorite artichokes recipe (I love artichokes!! ), and that I cannot eat in Japan because finding the proper ingredients is very difficult or impossible. This recipe of artichokes barigoule is a classic recipe from Provence. Except that preparing the artichokes themselves is a bit time consuming, the recipe is extremely simple and can be a full meal. It is originally not a vegetarian or vegan dish but it can be made so by symply not using the bacon in the recipe.

Artichokes barigoule:

– 1kg of fresh tiny artichokes

– 1 large ripe tomato or two smaller

– 1 onion or 1 leek

– 3 medium size potatoes

– a piece of bacon, thick is better

– 1 bouquet garni: thyme, laurel…

– 1/2 lemon to prevent artichokes to oxyde.

Prepare the raw artichokes by removing the hardest parts, please check there for more detail.

Dice the onion or the leek, the tomato and the bacon.

In a heated pan greased with olive oil, start with the onion/leek, the bacon then the tomato at medium heat. It has to get soft but not golden. Stir often. Then adf the artichokes, cover with water and add the bouquet gatni, salt and pepper. Then add the potatoes. Cook under cover for 30minutes at low heat. And it’s ready to eat!!!

April 12, 2017

A little soup

With some yellow carots, red carrots and normal carrots, some lotus root, some potatoes, and with some Italian beans soup mix that I cooked for lunch, I made for dinner this warm and rich vegan soup. Very very simple and so quick if you have cooked the beans before (optimally leftovers). In a large pan I put the cooked beans, water, quite a lot, and then cut the veggies and add them. I like both when it’s overcooked and veggies melt in the mouth, or when they are still crunchy, in particular the carrots, so I adjust the insertion time in the pan and the cooking time depending on that. I served warm, optionally with some gratted parmegiano, a good preparation foe our stay in Sicily!!!

December 22, 2016

Back to “normal”

After one full week of reunited Tokyo Paris sisters, it is time to part again, not for too long, since we’ll reunite with our whole family for another Christmas in Sicily, which I am very much looking forward too!!!

One week with guests at home and usual work is always quite intense. Dining out, waking up earlier to spend sometime together in the morning, and using our days off to travel the city. Yesterday was Culture day 文化の日 and we had quite a full day to enjoy the beautiful autumnal weather: we went to Shibamata to see some old shopping street and beautiful temple, then head to the new Otani hotel for a teppanyaki lunch and stroll in the Japanese garden. Spent part of the early afternoon at Dailanyama T-site, stopped on the way back at the Aman hotel, and finish shopper in Asakusa for some order-made paper lantern P. wanted for a very long time. Back home just in time for sunset and mount Fuji!!! (Don’t think of this kind of schedule if you are not motorized!)

And then by dinner our guests were gone, going back to Paris. And a sudden emptiness and quietness st home! Time for us to catch-up with our regular habits and in particular with our veggie-based dinner! So I prepared a very simple soup with butternut squash, potatoes, burdock, lotus root, cabbage, a large piece of konbu for the broth and finished with a little of soya sauce and sesame seeds. So simple and very Japanese in flavors.

November 4, 2016

Autumn quinoa soup

Last Christmas my parents offered me a giant book on vegetarian cooking. I’ve tried several recipes from that book and a lot of inspiration. I also learned a lot about some basic preparations. But if there were only one recipe to remember about it, the one that I would have not thought of, it’s the quinoa soup. I love that recipe and how it can easily be adjusted to the seasonal ingredients. This time I prepared it with half of a little kabocha, 2 little potatoes, 1 large very ripe tomato and one Japanese eggplant. First, I cut all the veggies but the tomato in dice then in a pan on high heat, greased with olive oil I roast them a bit. Add water for 2.5 soup servings, 1/2 to 2/3 cup of quinoa (I used black quinoa, but red and white work perfectly too). Add the tomato diced or in 1/8. Add a bit of black pepper and nutmeg (salt is not necessary with the nutmeg I find). Cook under cover at medium heat for 10 to 15min. Serve hot!

October 20, 2016